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Virtue

Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting collective and individual greatness. The opposite of virtue is vice.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

Virtue

vėr′tu, n. excellence: worth: moral excellence: the practice of duty: a moral excellence: sexual purity, esp. female chastity: purity: (B.) strength: force: inherent power, efficacy: one of the orders of the celestial hierarchy.—adj.Vir′tual, having virtue or efficacy: having the efficacy without the material part: in effect though not in fact: (mech.) possible and infinitesimal.—adv.Vir′tually.—adjs.Vir′tueless, wanting virtue: without efficacy; Vir′tue-proof (Milt.), impregnable in virtue; Vir′tuous, having virtue or moral goodness: blameless: righteous: practising duty: being according to the moral law: chaste (of a woman).—adv.Vir′tuously.—n.Vir′tuousness.—By, In, virtue of, through the power, force, or efficacy of; Make a virtue of necessity, to do as if from inclination or sense of duty something one must needs do; Seven principal Virtues, faith, hope, charity, justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude—the first three the theological, the last four the moral virtues; The cardinal virtues (see Cardinal). [O. Fr.,—L. virtus, bravery, moral excellence—vir, a man; cf. Gr. hērōs, Sans. vira, a hero.]